HomeSend announces Merchantrade Malaysia to join the hub

eServGlobal announces a new agreement for the HomeSend remittance service between its strategic business partner BICS and Merchantrade Asia Sdn Bhd. Merchantrade is a Malaysian based Mobile Virtual Network Operator (MVNO) and the country’s leading licensed money services company.

Through its remittance service, Merchantrade offers money transfer services via multiple modes i.e. branches, online as well as mobile money transfer to migrant workers. Merchantrade has over 170,000 pay‐out locations, with a strong and rapidly expanding payout presence across South Asia and South East Asia. With its established presence and strong distribution network, the agreement with Merchantrade enables HomeSend, the leading international mobile money transfer service, to further extend its reach in Asia, in particular, in key receiving markets such as India, Bangladesh, Myanmar, Malaysia, Sri Lanka, Indonesia and Vietnam. Merchantrade, in turn will benefit from HomeSend’s strong network of hub members in the more financially developed sending markets. Merchantrade is now connected to the HomeSend hub with services expected to go live this month. The World Bank recently released figures indicating that an estimated “3 percent of the world’s population have emigrated far from home in order to earn enough to support their families … In 2012, migrants sent an estimated US$401 billion in remittances to developing countries, a number that is expected to reach US$515 billion by 2015 … over half of the remittances sent to developing countries in 2012 flowed to Asia, and according to some estimates, remittances benefit more than 70 million families.” Paolo Montessori, eServGlobal CEO commented, “HomeSend’s global coverage is unrivalled in the space of international mobile money transfer. We welcome Merchantrade to the extensive list of Hub members. “HomeSend now boasts over 1 billion potential subscribers worldwide. On these solid foundations we are now delivering the next phase of our strategy, to progressively connect remittance corridors worldwide. With live corridors now lighting up the globe, we are confident that HomeSend is solidly positioned as the largest mobile remittance hub in the world.” HomeSend is a service offered by BICS, its strategic business partner, based on eServGlobal technology.